Conveyor ovens are increasingly popular in commercial baking. Food to be baked (such as, unbaked loaves of bread) is loaded on a continuous conveyor which passes through a heated oven chamber to emerge in baked form on the other side. In order to be efficient, such ovens must be carefully sealed and insulated to retain heat.
Due to the closed nature of the oven housing, it may be difficult to manage the distribution of heat in the oven chamber, and “hot spots” can result. In the worst case, if excessive heat builds up in a particular area, spontaneous fires can occur. Left unchecked, a fire can cause tremendous damage to the oven, surrounding areas, and may even cause human injury.
Certain types of conveyor ovens have been provided with reflective heat shields or baffles. Often used with radiant heat, these designs reflect heat down onto the food item, which may be desirable for broiling applications (such as for meat). However, this does not provide effective heat distribution for high temperature baking applications, in which it is undesirable to reflect the heat directly onto the food. Such heat shields or baffles would also tend to increase not decrease the fire risk in a high temperature baking application.
The use of stone or ceramic heat sinks in the baking chamber has also been proposed. These materials absorb heat and return it to the baking chamber in an attenuated way. However, under high heat stresses, such materials can fail, causing cracks or crumbling to occur in the stone. Further, such heat sinks are usually provided as a cladding on the walls of the oven. This limits their effectiveness since the slabs are attached to the walls of the oven, and have only one side exposed to the heated baking chamber.
There is an outstanding need for a conveyor oven design that can effectively distribute high heat within the oven chamber.